21 June 2017

The Muslim Council of Britain warned on Monday that British newspapers were fuelling hatred against Muslims. The organisation’s words came in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on a mosque in London’s Finsbury Park, where a van was driven into worshippers on Sunday night as they exited the building. The attacker had reportedly shouted “I want to kill all Muslims.”

Although no particular publications were named, Miqdaad Versi, the MCB’s assistant secretary, claimed that “We have national newspapers spreading hate and talking about how less Islam is the answer to terrorism that we face right now.” However, he also praised the government for “taking the attack seriously.”

Journalists such as Peter Oborne supported this view, claiming in the Middle East Eye that despite claiming Islamophobia does not exist, the right-wing press needs to “urgently consider” whether there is a link between the language used by conservative journalists and the abuse faced by many British Muslims.

Oborne cited writers such as Charles Moore, Douglas Murray and Rod Liddle for encouraging this view and said they needed to retract such “dangerous bilge” and start taking seriously “the problem of anti-Muslim hatred.” [MEND] Read more